The exemplary embodiment relates generally to information retrieval and finds particular application in connection with a system and method which aids users in conducting searches within a document collection using predefined building blocks for generating queries.
Given the ability for storing large collections of documents electronically for review, the searcher is often presented with a difficult task of formulating queries designed to retrieve relevant documents. For example lawyers conducting discovery may receive many documents from the opposing party, as well as documents of their own, from which they wish extract information for building a legal case. Other examples include the case of a team of analysts investigating a conflict of interest or conducting an audit in an organization.
Searching and browsing facilities that most digital investigation tools typically offer aim to find relevant documents based on keyword/boolean search techniques. Concept-based search tools are also available. Although this has proved to be useful in some stages of a digital investigation, e.g., in first stages of a litigation process when identifying the set of responsive documents, in other stages, e.g., when constructing a legal case, the emphasis shifts from finding documents to trying to find entities, such as the characters involved in the litigation, and events and actionable information related to them.
Where the document collection is structured, through manual annotation, searchers can perform more advanced searches. However, manual annotation is generally not feasible for preparing large document collections for searching.